New doggy depot enables supermarket visitors to park their pooch and shop

You wouldn’t park your bicycle unlocked while you pop into the supermarket, but every week thousands of Danes happily leave their unsecured dogs outside, trusting that nobody will have the audacity to steal them.

‘Park’ your pooch
But now a bright mind, inspired by the theft of his friend’s dog outside a supermarket, has come up with the invention every dog-owner has been crying out for: Den4Dogs.

The Swedish-invented doggy hostel enables you to ‘park’ your four-legged friend while you go in to shop, and the Irma and Rema 1000 supermarket supermarket chains are among those to welcome the initiative and provide the space for a trial run.

According to the store manager of the Irma in Islands Brygge, many customers have previously requested to have their dogs locked up while they shop.

Security and safetyAccording to its Swedish inventor, Mick Schultz Fedderson, safety has been one of the key elements during the development of the dog parking unit.

Den4Dogs complies with the necessary health requirements and psychological considerations, ensuring the utmost well-being of the dogs.

It is equipped with features such as an automatic temperature regulator and an automatic cleaning program with UV disinfection after every dog visit. It is highly secure, and it comes with an easy-to-use key card to open and lock.

Praised by expertsThe parking has been designed in consultation with all three of the Scandinavian countries’ veterinary institutes.

And it has been received positively by the Animal Protection Center Denmark (APCD), a voluntary organisation working for the welfare of animals.

“It is an advantage that the animals are protected against the sun in the summer and rain, ice and cold in the winter,” said Jens Jokumsen from APCD.

“Alternatively, the dogs must sit outside completely unprotected and may risk being stolen.”

Whether the invention will prove to be as popular in Denmark as in Sweden – where the climate tends to be much colder – remains to be seen.